Shaping the extinction burst: Increasing its probability and preventing its emergence across topographies

Abstract

Extinction bursts are traditionally described as transient increases in response rate following the discontinuation of reinforcement. However, their underlying mechanisms remain under debate. This study examined whether extinction bursts are modulated by the contingencies across multiple extinction exposures. Reinforcement contingencies were manipulated to assess whether extinction bursts increased or decreased in probability through repeated exposures to extinction, where bursts were differentially followed or not by subsequent access to food reinforcement. Twenty rats received a high-magnitude reinforcer (three pellets) under a fixed-ratio 1 schedule. Results showed that when extinction bursts were reinforced by regaining access to the reinforcement schedule, bursts persisted over successive extinction exposures, whereas repeated exposure without reinforcement led to the progressive decline of bursts. Crucially, extinction bursts did not emerge with a new response topography, suggesting that prior extinction exposure prevents their generalization to novel responses. This finding may have significant translational value for the design of interventions to minimize undesired extinction bursts across contexts or response topographies. The overall pattern of results indicates that extinction bursts are a learned phenomenon, shaped by reinforcement history and discrimination processes, and provide a basis for strategies to either promote or prevent their occurrence, depending on experimental or applied objectives.